Hacktivists take claim for Bank of America site disruption

A hacktivist group may be behind the sporadic issues that affected Bank of America’s website, causing a lag in access for customers.

The group called, “cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam,” posted a message in Pastebin claiming the attacks, allegedly launched Tuesday, were meant to target “properties of American-Zionist capitalists.”

A planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange was also mentioned in the message, though no news has surfaced of technical issues affecting its operations.

In an email to SCMagazine.com Wednesday, Mark Pipitone, a Bank of America spokesman, said that the situation was now “stable,” and that most customers were successfully able to access online banking services on the first attempt “with near 100 percent success rates.”

While the majority of customers did not experience issues yesterday, Pipitone did make reference to the “slowdown.”

“As for what triggered the slowdown, while I can’t address that directly, I can assure you that our customer and client information, our online banking platform and the related systems remain safe and secure,” he said.

NYSE did not immediately respond for comment regarding attack attempts by an outside group.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Bank of America customers in New York, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan confirmed they could not access the bank’s website.

On Wednesday, customers on Bank of America’s Twitter help page continued to inquire about the interruption in website access.